2011 Conference Agenda

Conference Day One

Tuesday May 24, 2011

7:15 Registration and Continental Breakfast

8:15 Chairperson’s Welcome and Opening Remarks

Paul Kapustka
Editor and Founder
Side Cut Reports

8:30 Examining Current MARKET ACTIVITY and FUTURE TRENDS for In-Building and Outdoor DAS

  • U.S. market demographics, the demand for mobile data services, and the impact on the coverage and capacity of cellular networks
  • What’s really driving the in-building and outdoor DAS markets in this depressed economy?
  • What types of DAS solutions are being deployed most?
    • Passive vs. active
    • Single carrier vs. neutral host
  • Determining the most common type of venues benefitting from installations
    • Public
    • Enterprise
    • Healthcare
    • Commercial
    • Other
  • Future trends and predictions for market growth

Kamal Garg
Manager of Business Development, Custom Network Solutions
Sprint

9:15 DAS BUSINESS MODELS – Overcoming Cost Concerns with Win-Win Approaches to Funding DAS Projects

  • Evaluating the structure and viability of different financing strategies - for carriers, venue-owners, and neutral host providers
    • Carrier owned DAS
    • Multi-carrier DAS
    • Neutral host DAS
    • Utility pole attachments for outdoor DAS
  • How are venue owners analyzing and justifying the capital expenditure and defining the ROI?
  • Examining the change taking place in the venue owner revenue model towards all stakeholders providing elements of the network – what does this do for the ROI?
  • Is there still carrier reluctance towards neutral host architectures (vs. a dedicated base station)

Moderator:

Ron Walczak
Principal Consultant
Walczak Technology Consultants

Panelists:

Denis Stelatos
Director, Site Acquisition
FONTUR International

Cliff Padgett
Owner
Two Rivers Site Development

10:15 Networking and Refreshment Break

10:45 Examining the Evolution of Multi-Carrier DAS

The model for multi-carrier/neutral host DAS is in flux and the players are quickly staking out new positions.  Learn why carriers are being driven to embrace multi-Carrier DAS and what major venue owners want from their wireless infrastructure.  This presentation breaks down the discussion with perspective from each of the major stakeholders and addresses how venue-driven, customer focused solutions could result in more market opportunities for DAS installations. 

Seth Buechley
President
SOLiD Technologies, USA

CASE STUDY

11:30 DAS for Colleges/Universities – Finding the Right Fit – DAS Project

MSU has one of the largest public campuses in the United States with 553 structures covering 5,200 acres located in East Lansing, MI. This case study will cover how MSU created unique, direct public-private partnerships with all the major wireless carriers in its market, including Verizon, AT&T, Sprint, Nextel, MetroPCS and T-Mobile, to deploy DAS solutions. Discussion about outdoor vs. indoor systems and their unique challenges in a college/university environment will also be included and a special focus will be given to best practices for partnering with higher education institutions. MSU’s contiguous land situation and high population density certainly provided an incentive for carriers to enter into DAS agreements, but many aspects of its experience working with its carrier partners can be applied to other projects across the country and beyond.

Jeff Carpenter
Manager of Planning and Engineering
Telecommunication Systems
Michigan State University

12:15 Networking Lunch for Speakers and Attendees

1:30 Evaluating the Viability of Using In-Building DAS as a CONVERGED PLATFORM for Multiple Radio Services, Protocols and Applications

  • Network migration plans and the role of indoor/outdoor DAS within them
  • Understanding the key factors taken into consideration when determining site type/architecture to best meet RF objectives
    • By what criteria are deployments decided upon and prioritized?
    • Cost
    • Visibility into the DAS portion of the network
    • Scale of coverage gains
    • Vertical market priorities?

Jeffery Fuller
President, Americas
Zinwave

2:15 IN-BUILDING DAS Network Design Options and Considerations

  • Pinpointing the main issues that affect choosing a design for an indoor DAS network:
    • Size and location of building
    • Number of tenants
    • Building architecture
    • Wall and floor composition
    • Floor layout
    • Interior partitions and other impediments to signal coverage
    • Asbestos presence
    • Aesthetics
  • Availability of infrastructure (Fiber, telco rooms, conduits, cable trays)
  • Local codes
  • Direct feed from base station or off the air
  • Avoiding interference from outdoor signals penetrating the building
  • Estimating signal propagation within the building initially, then measuring

Dr. Henry Huang
Director, DAS Engineering
AT&T Wireless

3:00 Networking and Refreshment Break

3:30 Managing In-Building Systems for the ENTERPRISE

Compare and contrast how different wireless carriers address the issues pertaining to managing enterprise-based in-building systems in this lively and thought-provoking panel discussion. The panel will answer pointed questions such as:

  • What are the biggest challenges that you face with providing in-building coverage for enterprise customers?
  • How do you address multi-multi tenant buildings?
  • What is your approach to neutral host or multi-carrier projects in the enterprise area?
  • What do you see changing in the future regarding coverage for enterprise customers?
  • What factors, other than coverage, influence your decision to install an in-building system at an enterprise customer site?

Jim Erickson
Director, In-Building Solutions
AT&T Wireless

Phil Ziegler
Founder
PZ-Wireless In Building Network Solutions

4:30 Determining the Effectiveness of SIMULATION TOOL FOR IN-BUILDING PROJECTS

With the increased complexity of in-building systems in terms of spectrum utilization, number of supported services and spectrum bands, and with proliferation of in-building solutions that address coverage and capacity, are the current RF simulation tools addressing the designer’s needs?

  • Outdoor-indoor interference for indoor DAS and femtocells
  • Femtocells: paradigm shift for in-building capacity distribution?
  • MIMO vs. SISO signal analysis – complexity of analysis vs. achieved accuracy
  • Can RF design help build an efficient project management plan?
  • System maintenance, monitoring and upgrade: how can Network Operations benefit from RF design?

Vladan Jevremovic
Director, Solutions Engineering.
iBwave Solutions, Inc.

5:15 Understanding and Complying with the Current REGULATORY ENVIRONMENTfor In-building DAS

  • Achieving compliance with International Fire Code (IFC) and National Fire Protection Association (NFPA)
  • Embracing public safety as a driver for in-building DAS and capitalizing on the DAS by offering additional data applications
  • Leveraging the needs of wireless carriers to offset the cost of installing public safety in-building coverage
  • Evaluating the influence IFC and NFPA could have on future in-building DAS

Jack Daniel
Owner
The Jack Daniel Company

6:00 Congress Adjourns until Day Two